My First Planned Parenthood Experience: Part 2

You can find Part 1 of my Planned Parenthood Experience here. I was nervous when I woke up on the morning of my appointment. Bleary-eyed, I put on clothes, kissed the still sleeping Boyfriend goodbye, and headed to the car.

I entered the office and checked myself in with the front desk. After filling out some information regarding my current sexual activity, my income, and my sexual health history, I handed the clipboard in and watched Say Anything as I waited.

There was a group of three young women behind me, and they were discussing birth control options as they too were waiting to be seen. My ears perked up when one of them mentioned that she was considering getting an IUD. As readers of this blog are fully aware, I am a HUGE fanof IUDs, and I took the opportunity to share my experiences with it, and some of the awesome statistics.

After a short period of time, I was called into the back room, and had a chat with one of the attending nurses. She explained that, due to my symptoms and the length of time since my last pap smear, I was going to have a full pelvic exam and a full STI screening. She also explained that the state of California has an awesome program to help people with limited income to receive sexual health care for free, and even with my new job, I qualified.

The STI screening started right there in that tiny office with a prick of my middle finger. This particular test was to screen if I had been exposed to HIV, and amazingly, I would have the results of that test by the end of my appointment. I was blown away by this fantastic advance in HIV screening.

I went into the exam room after giving a urine sample, undressed my lower half, and waited again. When the doctor came in, she was very communicative and explained everything before she started examining me. She took three samples from my cervix, examined the positioning of my IUD (still in place!), and checked that my uterus and ovaries were not swollen. Before she moved her hands, placed the speculum, or swabbed, she was sure to tell me exactly what she was about to do. This definitely put my mind at ease, and kept me from jumping or starting when anything changed.

When she was done, she took one of the samples to their in-house lab, and checked it all out. Apparently, I had a bacterial infection that may have been the cause of the bleeding, and she handed me a prescription antibiotic. Then she told me that Planned Parenthood would call me if any of the other STI tests came back positive, but only if they were positive.

Unfortunately, I did receive one of those calls. My pap smear came back with some abnormalities. At some point in the past 10 years, I was exposed to HPV. The tiny sample that was taken was not enough to determine if I have one of the more benign forms, or if it is one of the types that can lead to cervical cancer. So, I have yet another appointment set to get some biopsies done.

I’ll have a post up on Wednesday, discussing HPV. I’ve gotten to know my STI a lot better since the diagnosis.

hopefully it is easily treated and wont need surgery! curious to know, have you ever had the HPV shot?

But also very happy you had such a great experience. I’ve lucked out in life and had some very positive experiences when getting paps (even if the general feeling is annoying and uncomfortable), I’ve always had good doctors that let me know what is happening and why.

I think you can still receive the Gardasil shot after the age limit, but it’s not as effective because it’s after you’ve been sexually active (for most women anyway), but now that you have HPV it may not be possible. You should ask when you see your doctor, it may not help with this version but may help with the other HPV types.

Yes, I am a huge fan of IUDs. Your information is incorrect, however, as IUDs “primarily work by disrupting sperm mobility and damaging sperm so that they are prevented from joining with an egg”, according to Wikipedia.

The IUD is a wonderful method of contraception for sexually monogamous couples. I had one inserted after I had blood clots in my lungs that formed from the estrogen in hormonal birth control methods. After 4 years, I had it removed so that I could get pregnant with our son. I was pregnant within 60 days. After he was born, I had another put in. It has relieved so much stress AND kept me blood clot free. 🙂